On Wednesday 31 May we’re absolutely delighted to be joined by Emma Forrest, celebrating the paperback launch of her memoir Busy Being Free, a book we read last year and which totally blew us away. It’s a huge honour to have Emma here in the shop with us, the night after her interview with Sara Pascoe in London.
Busy Being Free is a gripping story of love and heartbreak, sex and celibacy told from the perspective of a woman “whose life had been guided, thus far, by romantic obsession”, who turns her back on all romantic and sexual attachments. The brutally honest account of single motherhood and domestic life with a backdrop of Trump and Covid, questions what it means to be a woman in her 40s outside of the context of marriage and men. It’s an unflinching, unpredictable, erotic and often hilarious look at the contradictions that make us human and we’re in for a fantastically entertaining evening.
‘A staggering piece of writing’ Nigella Lawson
‘I adored it’ Dolly Alderton
‘Alluring, shocking, welcome and wonderful’ Lisa Taddeo
‘I’ve never really read about sex and been so sharply reminded on how much it is tied up with the fundamentals of being a woman’ Minnie Driver
Emma will be in conversation with Sophie and then there will be plenty of time for questions and book signing. The Real Magic Bar will be open for business.